He Married My Best Friend While I Gave Birth, So I Left novel · Chapter 9 of 48

Chapter 9: Sunday Brunch

On Sunday at eleven I walked into the Brookhaven Country Club with my daughter strapped to my chest.

I wore the one dress that had fit me in the third trimester and still fit now, plain navy, with Byron's gray scarf over it.

He followed me in a clean shirt and no tie.

"Last chance," he said at the door.

"I'm not leaving."

"I know. I wanted to say it out loud so I can tell the lawyer I tried."

The dining room was full.

Sixty members sat at round tables with white cloths, and a banner over the head table read: Welcome to the Family, Daphne.

Eleanor sat in the middle of it in cream silk.

Daphne was beside her in pale pink with one hand on her stomach, and Brady sat on her other side, cutting a melon.

The hostess saw me and froze with a menu in her hand.

"Mrs. Angell," she said, which was the wrong Mrs. Angell, and then she stepped aside.

I walked down the center aisle.

Forks stopped.

A woman at the second table whispered, "Is that the first wife?" and her husband said, "That's the wife."

At the head table, Brady looked up and dropped his knife.

"Lacey," he said. "You can't be here."

"I'm the first Mrs. Angell," I said. "I thought I should come to the welcome."

Somebody laughed and stopped.

I turned to face the room, with Poppy asleep against my heart.

"Good morning," I said. "Most of you gave us a gift at our wedding four years ago. I'd like to tell you what your host did last Saturday."

"Lacey, dear," Eleanor said at once, standing up. "You're unwell. We've all been praying for you."

"At two o'clock last Saturday," I said, to the tables and not to her, "I was in a delivery room at St. Brigid's. My husband told me he was at a retirement lunch."

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